Nigeria nears fresh census as Tinubu considers committee

Nigeria on Monday moved closer to conducting a new national population and housing census with biometric and digital components. The nation last held a census in November 2006.

President Bola Tinubu, at a meeting at the State House with officials of the National Population Commission (NPC), assured that he would set up a committee to align the census budget with the government’s present financial realities.

He said the National Identity Management Commission (NIMC) must be part of the review.

“We must ascertain who we are, how many we are, and how to manage our data. Without an accurate census, we can’t successfully plan for employment, agriculture, and food sovereignty. So many problems arise without accurate data,” President Tinubu said.

He reiterated his commitment to ensuring accurate and reliable figures from the national census to strengthen development planning and improve Nigerians’ living conditions through more efficient social security.

President Tinubu noted that government incentives, such as the sale and distribution of fertilizers, could be easily improved with more reliable data and demographics.

The President told the delegation that biometric capturing should be central to the process, with multiple identification features, including facial and voice recognition.

“We should ensure our financial muscle is well in place to lift our burden before we approach development partners for the census. We should work out the figures before discussing the role of development partners.

“This stop-and-go activity on the census cannot work with me. So we better have a definite path. I will set up a committee for you to look at the issues critically and determine the sources and applications of resources. Where can we get help, and what can we lift before we embark on proclamation?”

The Minister of Budget and Economic Planning, Sen. Abubakar Atiku Bagudu, said the census data would be central to future planning and resource distribution.

“At a retreat for the ministers in 2023, Mr. President, you reiterated your commitment to the census, so there is no doubt about your desire and commitment to conducting it. In fact, at the last Federal Executive Council meeting, you asked me what the problem was, and I told you it was simply an issue of lack of funding.

“Even today, before this meeting, I called the NPC Chairman and restated your commitment to the census. However, the commission and all of us in the team need to agree on the minimum amount we can source to support Mr. President in making the final decision.

“The NPC indicated that 40 percent of the funding for the 2006 census came from development partners,” Bagudu stated.

Bagudu noted that the enumeration done by the NPC so far has been helpful.

“Mr. President, we have been having ecosystem meetings to link identity agencies, including the geo-spatial unit chaired by the ministry, because of our mandate as the supervising ministry of the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS). The NPC, NBS, NIMC, Ministry of Digital Economy, passport office, social register, voter register, and even telecoms data have been meeting with the National Space Research and Development Agency (NASRDA) to determine how much data is available to the government and how much optimization can take place.”

In his presentation, NPC Chairman Nasir Isa Kwarra said the last census took place in 2006, and 19 years later, the figures were no longer relevant for planning, particularly in key sectors that directly impact the population.

He said 760,000 tablets had been acquired and stored with the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), assuring that the commission would engage with development partners to seek support whenever President Tinubu proclaimed the new census.